On June 13, Secretary Michael O. Leavitt, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is convening a Leadership Forum in Washington, DC on pandemic preparedness. This interactive forum will bring together highly influential leaders from the business, faith, civic and health care sectors to participate in dynamic discussions to help Americans become more prepared for a possible influenza pandemic. In order to extend the value of this one-day conference, the Department of Health and Human Services is also hosting a blog summit on preparing for a pandemic. This five-week online event, beginning on May 22, is part of an ongoing effort by the Department to help Americans become more prepared for a pandemic. The blog summit provides an opportunity to have an open conversation and shape the thinking about how to communicate the critical need for preparedness at home and within workplaces and communities.

The blog summit is intended to be a dynamic online conversation; it is open to the public for commenting. Public comments will be moderated, but participating bloggers are able to post freely. Representatives from the Department will not blog, but will comment on blog posts.

To help facilitate the dialogue, a series of questions will be posed over the five weeks, addressing the need for all Americans to prepare for pandemic influenza, the challenges that leaders will face in communicating this need and the potential solutions for overcoming those challenges. The blog will also serve to communicate lessons learned from the Leadership Forum and to communicate what needs to be done moving forward.

Pandemics, while rare, are not new. In the 20th century, three flu pandemics were responsible for more than 50 million deaths worldwide and almost a million deaths in the United States. It is not possible to predict with certainty when the next flu pandemic will occur or how severe it will be, but the time to plan is now. Ours is the first generation ever to have an opportunity to prepare in advance of a pandemic.